


The Perfect Woman

by redlipstickblackdress



Series: S.H.I.E.L.D. Adventures [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: Espionage, Established Relationship, F/M, Feels, Humor, Mild Sexual Content, Ridiculous, Romance, Science, Science Bros, Sequel, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 16:26:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 12,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlipstickblackdress/pseuds/redlipstickblackdress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this sequel to my story "Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D.", Bruce Banner breaks up with his girlfriend when The Hulk hurts her, and Agent Coulson and his girlfriend break up when they have an argument about a case they're assigned.  Can Coulson learn to trust her in time to take down a secret lab that's trying to create the perfect women before more women get kidnapped?  What happens when they capture the girl Bruce still loves?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Good Morning

Bruce Banner rolled over in his bed to cuddle his girlfriend, Lacey McMannis. He kissed her bare shoulder and she woke up, turning over to look at him. 

“Good morning,” she said with a smile. Bruce placed a kiss on her lips. He felt so relaxed with her, he always had. That’s how they had gotten together in the first place – she had such a calming effect on him that even The Hulk could feel tranquil with her around. Lacey’s hand came up to play with his dark curls of hair while Bruce kissed her lovingly again, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her closer. 

“You shouldn’t look so beautiful in the morning,” he told her, his lips releasing hers so that they could work their way down her neck. 

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because it makes me want to stay in bed all day with you.” 

“I wouldn’t mind.” 

“I have some work to do today,” he said, trying to reason with himself as his lips moved across her collarbone. “But I could spare an hour or two.” 

She sighed as he brushed his fingers over a sensitive spot on her lower spine that he knew drove her crazy. A moment later, his mouth returned to hers, his tongue entering to explore. Her hands played with his hair while she removed her mouth from his and kissed the spot on his neck right below his ear before whispering,

“I love you.” He looked into her eyes and smiled. 

“I love you too,” he replied before his mouth came down on hers again. They spent the next hour and a half demonstrating their love.


	2. Go Away, Tony

Clint Barton muttered to himself as he walked down the hall to Gwen Morehouse’s office. He had never gotten along with the newest S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He knocked briefly on the door before throwing it open. 

“Can I help you, Barton?” Gwen snapped. 

“Coulson wants you in his office,” he replied snarkily. He wasn’t happy about having to deliver this message to Coulson’s girlfriend, especially because he suspected he knew what they were going to do once she got there, and it was something he’d rather not think about. It became especially disturbing to him when her face lit up and she stood, smoothing her red hair. She walked past Clint in the doorway to go see what Coulson wanted. 

“You can go now,” she said to Clint, and he wandered back down the hall saying things under his breath that Gwen was glad she couldn’t hear. Coulson’s door was open, so she entered without knocking and leaned across his desk flirtatiously. 

“Barton said you wanted to see me?” 

“Yes, I want to see all of you, Agent Morehouse,” Coulson replied, his blue eyes sparkling as he stood to close his door and twist the lock. She looked at his desk and noticed that it was suspiciously void of objects. 

“Your desk seems rather…empty,” she pointed out, turning around so that her back was to the desk. 

“I have something in mind to put on it,” he replied. He walked over and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her sinfully while he pushed her backside against the desk. She began loosening his tie as he lifted her hips so that she was sitting on the desk, then he crawled on top of her and lowered them down slowly so that he was laying on top of her. He bit her earlobe while he began undoing the buttons of her green blouse. Someone knocked on the door. 

“Agent Blue Eyes? I have a file for you,” Tony Stark’s voice came through the locked door. 

“Slide it under the door,” Coulson shouted back, then returned his mouth to Gwen’s sternum. 

“Gwen’s in there, isn’t she? Way to go on locking the door. I’m the one who gave you that tip,” Tony reminded them of the last time he had interrupted their activities. 

“Go away, Tony! We’re busy!” Gwen said loudly enough for Stark to hear while she finished undoing Coulson’s buttons and slid his shirt off, then began working at his belt. 

“Fine. No need to thank me,” he said, and there was the sound of paper sliding under the door. Tony was gone. Coulson and Gwen quickly got to work removing the rest of each other’s garments as they completed the task he had called her in for.


	3. Lacey's Insecurity

Bruce had his glasses on and was looking at one of the see-through screens in the S.H.I.E.L.D. lab. Lacey was in there with him. She liked watching him work. S.H.I.E.L.D. was keeping her around because they were still working on figuring out exactly what effect she had on The Hulk and why she was able to keep him so relaxed. So far, they couldn’t figure out anything. She didn’t have that effect on anyone else, and she didn’t do anything special to calm him down. It was just her. 

Lacey watched as Bruce moved things around on the touch screen, looking at charts, graphs, tables, and numbers. None of it made any sense to her. She was far from a scientist – she had majored in English in college and had quitted her crappy job when S.H.I.E.L.D. started working with her. They took care of everything, so until they wanted her to leave, she was happy where she was. 

Walking up behind Bruce, Lacey wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled her face into his back. He smiled and put a hand on her arm. 

“What are you looking at?” she asked. He didn’t mind when she hung out with him while he was working. He liked the company and it was good to have her around in case he needed a break. Besides, she kept him calm and focused. She let go of him to stand next to him and look at the screen while he pointed to various pieces of data and tried to explain them. However, he soon noticed that her eyes were staring at him blankly. 

“It’s just…physics stuff,” he finally summarized, and she smiled and got onto her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. 

“I hope I’m not in the way,” she blushed. Sometimes she got insecure about the fact that she was so…ordinary compared to everyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Everyone here was a genius scientist or a trained fighter or a superhero. She was just…Lacey. 

“You’re never in the way,” he told her, placing a kiss into her hair. 

“I wish I could help you or something. I’m not smart or helpful and I feel like I’m distracting you.” 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re not in my way, although you’re very distracting,” he smiled. 

“I’m going to go read.” 

Knowing that she was going to feel like she was in the way even though she wasn’t, he just nodded and let her go, making her promise to have lunch with him in an hour.


	4. Quality Time with Pepper

Nick Fury had called Coulson and Gwen to the bridge. He said he had an assignment for them. They had done a great job working together on their last assignment and Fury felt they were a good team. 

“Agent Coulson. Agent Morehouse. Here’s the situation: there seems to be a group of scientists running an underground lab.” 

“What are they working on?” Coulson asked, looking at the photographs of some of the men on the screens in front of them. 

“They want to create ‘the perfect woman.’ They kidnap women with certain desirable traits and try to use their DNA to capture those traits. Men come to them with a checklist, and they create a woman with those specifications.” 

“Oh, is that all? I thought it would be something creepy,” Gwen said sarcastically. 

“We’re on it,” Coulson told Fury, taking the digital file with the information for he and Gwen to look at. 

After lunch, Fury got an alert about a small army of robots attacking the city and prepared to assemble The Avengers. It was a busy day at S.H.I.E.L.D.. 

*****

The Hulk was punching robots out of the way along with the rest of The Avengers while they all dodged blasts of fire from the robots’ guns. No one knew where these guys had come from, but it didn’t matter. The important thing was to keep the city safe. 

Lacey had no idea that any of this was going on – after a nice lunch with Bruce, she had returned to her room to read some more. She had decided she needed to pick up a few things in town, so one of the small S.H.I.E.L.D. planes had taken her from the helicarrier to the top of Stark Tower, where she was told she was always welcome to go. She went inside and was greeted by Tony’s girlfriend Pepper Potts. 

“Lacey! It’s good to see you.” 

“It’s good to see you too! I just wanted to come to the city and grab a few things.” 

“You might want to wait for a bit, The Avengers are defending the city. Would you like a drink?” 

“Sure.” Pepper made them a couple of caramel apple martinis and they sat and sipped them while catching up. When they finished them, the noise outside seemed to have died down a bit, so Lacey felt it was safe to go run her errands. When she left Stark Tower, the street was a mess. There were still a few robots that The Avengers were fighting, but the majority of them had been fought off and so Lacey figured she could probably safely walk down the street to the store to pick up what she needed. 

The Hulk saw Lacey and looked at her for a moment. He heard a blast, and glanced just in time to see that a robot had shot at her. If it hit her, it would kill her in an instant. He managed to stomp over just in time and push her out of the way. She hit the brick wall of a building and collapsed unconscious onto the sidewalk. The rest of the robots were quickly eliminated.

The Hulk walked back over to where Lacey was lying and looked at her sadly for a moment before shrinking down into Bruce Banner. Iron Man few over, hovering over them for a moment before landing in his suit. He tossed Bruce a pair of shorts that he’d managed to stow away somewhere so that the scientist wouldn’t have to stand there naked, then lifted up Lacey, flying her to the top of Stark Tower. He put Lacey in the plane where everyone who was going back to S.H.I.E.L.D. was waiting. She was lying on the floor, and Bruce immediately began checking for head trauma. She seemed to be fine other than being a bit bruised and beat up. When they got back to the helicarrier, Bruce tucked her into her bed and stayed there all night while she slept to check on her frequently and make sure she was okay.


	5. Trust

Coulson and Gwen were sitting in his office the next day discussing their assignment. Gwen was an espionage agent, and one of the best in the business. Her expertise was in going undercover and getting information out of people, and she was very good at it. She was a beautiful young woman, which was an advantage when trying to get men to talk. All she had to do was flirt a little, use her feminine wiles, and she could usually get them to tell her anything. Regardless of her physical appearance, she was also skilled with a weapon and knew how to use spy equipment. This combination made her ideal for what she did. 

However, Coulson still worried about her. He didn’t doubt her abilities, but he cared about her, even more than he sometimes let on. They had a great relationship, but sometimes it was hard to separate it from their work. However, they had made an agreement to trust each other when it came to their assignments together, and so far it hadn’t been a problem…until now. 

“Gwen, I don’t want you doing this,” he told her. She had planned to go undercover – what she was best at. Her plan was to somehow get these creepy Franken-scientists to bring her into the lab as one of their DNA samples so that she could see exactly how their operation worked. “It’s too dangerous.” 

“Hello. Espionage agent. Danger is kind of what we do in this line of work.” 

“We don’t know what they’re doing to these women. They could be experimenting on them, cutting them open, violating them, who knows what else.” 

“Which is why I need to go in so that we’ll find out. If they’re hurting people, we need to uncover it and rescue those people.” 

“There has to be another way.” 

“Phil, this is what I do best. Just let me do my job. I know what I’m doing.” 

“But you don’t know what you’re dealing with. These guys might be a lot more than you can handle.” Gwen’s jaw clenched and she glared at him. 

“You don’t trust me to do my job right.” 

“That’s not what I meant. I just worry about you, I don’t want you getting hurt.” 

“I didn’t know you thought I’m so incapable,” she said harshly. He looked at her, trying to figure out how to reply. He didn’t know how to make her believe that he knew she was great at her job, but didn’t want her getting hurt. “When we got together, I asked you to do one thing, and that thing is to trust me. Apparently you can’t do that. Maybe this relationship was a mistake,” she said coldly. 

“Gwen…I do trust you. It’s just…” he didn’t know how to explain. 

“Let’s just do our job. We’ll discuss this tomorrow, Agent Coulson,” she said before turning her back and walking out of his office without even looking back at him. When she got to her own office, she closed the door and burst into tears. 

Coulson had some tears of his own, and put his head in his hands as he tried to figure out how to get her back.


	6. Hurt

Lacey woke up to find Bruce in bed with her, asleep. She put a hand on the side of his face and he opened his brown eyes to look into her gray-blue ones. She smiled at him and he smiled back, but something was wrong. She could tell. Trying to ignore it, she leaned in to kiss him. He kissed her back, but there was something behind it. 

“Is something wrong?” she asked him. She sat up and cringed – she was pretty sore and her head hurt. He sat up too and looked at her sadly. 

“I can’t do this anymore.” 

“Can’t do what?” 

“This. I keep putting you in danger. The Other Guy hurt you.” 

“The Other Guy saved my life,” she said in disbelief. 

“If you hadn’t gotten involved with me, you would never have gotten hurt in the first place. I’m a monster. You deserve better than that.” 

“Bruce…” she started tearing up. “There isn’t anyone better for me. You’re not a monster.” 

“I’m sorry, Lacey. I can’t keep doing this to you,” he said, tears welling up as he watched her start crying harder. “I love you too much to let you keep getting hurt because of me.”

“Don’t,” she whispered. He just kissed her on the forehead and got up to leave. “Bruce, please, don’t go…” he looked at her one last time, so much hurt in his eyes, and she knew it was useless. She collapsed back on the bed in sobs and he left her room, breaking down himself as soon as the door was closed. He wanted to go right back in there and hold her, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to do what was best to keep her safe.


	7. The Lab

Mike Stevenson entered the lab using his key card. He gathered up the other guys and plugged his phone into a computer. When they were all looking at the screen, he played a video he had recorded on his phone. On it was a team of superheroes fighting a robot attack on the city. 

“What are we looking at?” one of the guys said. 

“Keep watching,” he instructed. They watched as The Hulk pushed a young woman out of the way and she collapsed unconscious. 

“I don’t know what we’re looking at.” 

“Keep watching.” The Hulk walked back over to the young woman and transformed into Bruce Banner. Mike stopped the video and turned to look at the rest of the guys. 

“What, The Hulk has a girlfriend?” 

“A girlfriend who can turn him back into a human, even when she’s unconscious. There’s got to be something about that girl that keeps a guy relaxed, and that would be a great trait to offer to our clients. I think we should find her.” 

“We’ll look for her. Do we know anything about her?” 

“Not yet, just what she looks like. Search the city.” 

“Will do.”


	8. Flexible

Gwen entered Coulson’s office. 

“Gwen. I—”

“I’ve already started the plan, Agent Coulson,” Gwen interrupted. 

“What plan?” 

“I posted a video on the internet that I assume the guys who run the lab are going to find. Hopefully they’d take me to their location.” 

“Gwen, I really don’t like this idea. It’s not safe.”

“Agent Coulson, if you can’t work with me, I’ll request someone who can.” Coulson looked at her sadly and it hurt Gwen to look at him. She fought to keep her tears in and managed for the time being to hide how she was feeling. 

“Show me the video,” he said, trying to sound professional, although it just came out sounding sad. She brought it up and played it, and he watched as she bent her body into different shapes and moved. 

“I did gymnastics when I was younger,” she explained. 

“I…didn’t know that about you,” he said, a bit sadly, adjusting his tie as he watched. He wished he had discovered this in a more intimate way. 

“Well, you don’t know everything about me,” she said. He looked up at her sadly from his desk chair. Her heart ached. She felt bad for saying it as soon as she had said it, but didn’t take it back. 

“So, you planted this video. What if they don’t find it?”

“They are going to find it…because you are going to give it to them.”

“What do you mean?” 

“You are going to pose as one of their clients. Show them the video, say you found it on the internet and that you want a woman with my flexibility. They should come and find me.” 

“Who do I tell them I am?” he asked. He hated this plan, but the last thing he wanted to do was argue with Gwen and make her more angry at him. 

“I don’t know. Just act like a socially awkward guy who wants an artificial woman. I trust you to figure it out.” She said the word trust a bit heavily, emphasizing it. He caught her drift. He felt terrible – he wished she could understand that he was just trying to protect her because he cared about her so much. 

“I’m on it,” he said. She nodded crisply and left his office, letting her tears escape as soon as she had turned the corner. Working with him wouldn’t be easy…seeing him made her heart hurt. But she had to stay professional and do her job.


	9. A Request for Natasha

Lacey took a deep breath and entered the room. Natasha Romanoff was sitting at a desk looking at some papers. 

“Hello,” Natasha said when she saw her. 

“I have…something I wanted to ask you.” Natasha looked at her, waiting for her to continue. “I want you to teach me how to defend myself.”

“You want to learn self-defense?” 

“Yes. I think it would be good for me to know how to fight in case I’m ever in danger. I thought maybe you could…teach me some techniques. Help me practice.” 

“I’m not sure Doctor Banner would take kindly to me roughing up his girlfriend,” Natasha pointed out. Natasha Romanoff wasn’t afraid of many things, but The Hulk was one of them. 

“We’re not…I’m not…he broke up with me.” 

“I see. If you want to kick his ass, I don’t recommend it.” 

“No, that’s not why I want to…I don’t want him to feel like he has to protect me.” Natasha was hesitant – Lacey was small and had never fought anyone in her life – but when she saw the sad look on the small girl’s face she couldn’t help but give in. 

“Tomorrow morning, 10:00am.” 

“Thank you,” Lacey sighed with relief. She looked forward to it.


	10. Pac-Man

Lacey got the little plane to land on top of Stark Tower and she went inside. She saw that Bruce was sitting on the couch next to Pepper. He looked forlorn and upset. Tony was holding a couple of drinks and went to hand one to Bruce. All three of them turned to look at her. She looked at her shoes, unable to look Bruce in the eyes. 

“I’ll come back,” she said, running back out to the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane. Pepper gave Tony a look, and he went after her. Tony and Lacey had a close friendship. 

“You don’t have to leave,” he said when he found her standing outside on the tower, wiping away tears. “You haven’t even played Pac-Man on my giant TV yet.” Lacey knew that for her and Tony, ‘playing Pac-Man’ was code for ‘having a heart-to-heart.’ 

“Are you just using Pac-Man as an excuse to show off your shiny toys?” she asked with a smile, wiping away some stray tears. 

“Maybe. Well, yes. But I also have to beat you after I totally let you win last time. And the time before that.” 

“You did not,” she called him out, and he took her inside and made her a drink while she looked at anything except Bruce, although she could feel his eyes on her. Then they took their drinks into another room and Tony made her set up the game. What a lazy-ass. They started playing in silence for a few minutes before Tony decided to get the pep talk started. 

“He’s heart-broken, you know.” 

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” 

“Then it doesn’t matter if we talk about him,” Tony reasoned in Tony logic. 

“There’s not a whole lot to talk about.”

“I think your joystick has a different opinion. It looks like its physically in pain.” Lacey sighed and eased up on the joystick. 

“It’s just…he always acts like I’m in so much danger, but he saved my life. I don’t understand what his problem is.” 

“See, from your perspective, he saved you from a firey robot death, but from his point of view, he’s thinking that if you’d never met him, your life wouldn’t have been in danger of death by robot in the first place. When you add in that the big green guy knocked you unconscious…it seems pretty bad to him.”

“I’d tell him that I don’t see it like that at all, but he wouldn’t listen to me.” 

“He doesn’t want to listen to you because he thinks he’s doing the right thing. He loves you.” 

“I’m not so sure about that,” Lacey said sadly.

“Sometimes while we’re working he gets this goofy look on his face. I always thought it was because he had the honor of being in my presence, but I now that I think about it…I think it’s actually because he’s thinking about you. Maybe.” She smiled and shook her head at that last addition. “Give me some time to talk some sense into him…or rather, make Pepper talk some sense into him. She’s the one who talks sense, I’m the one who looks pretty.” 

“If you say so,” Lacey laughed. They returned to their game and she felt a little better, but she knew she would be a lot better off when Natasha taught her to take care of herself.


	11. Coulson Undercover

Gwen knocked on Coulson’s door. They were ready to begin the first stage of their plan and he had been changing into his costume to prepare to go undercover. 

“Come in,” he said, and she opened the door to take in his outfit. He was wearing khaki pants, red converse, a blue short-sleeved shirt, a brown sweater-vest and his black-rimmed reading glasses. Gwen couldn’t help it – she burst into laughter at the sight. He looked confused for a moment, then realized he must look pretty funny, so he started laughing too. Then Gwen remembered that they had broken up and that she was mad at him and stopped. Coulson finally noticed that she was wearing an especially low-cut top that day and reached up to tug at his tie, then remembered he wasn’t wearing one and awkwardly lowered his hand. 

“It’ll do,” Gwen said, indicating his outfit. “Did you find the address?”

“Yes.” 

“Do you have your microphone, camera, and gun?” she asked, and he indicated a small pin he was wearing that would allow Gwen to see and hear what went wrong. “Let’s do this thing,” she said, wishing that she could kiss him for good luck.


	12. The Spyder

Lacey showed up at 10:00am in a training room wearing a sports bra tank top and athletic shorts. She and Natasha warmed up and stretched. Natasha started teaching Lacey some basic techniques and moves. She taught Lacey the most effective way to punch and a few good kicks. First she figured she’d teach her how to throw a punch, and then they’d work on more defensive strategies later. When they’d been working out for an hour, they called it good for the day. Lacey was exhausted, but had learned a few things, and she already felt safer walking out of there. 

For the next few days, Natasha reviewed these things with her and helped her practice them on a punching bag. Meanwhile, Coulson went to order his special made girl from the secret lab that they were trying to uncover. He showed them the video of Gwen and stuck to the plan, even though he completely hated this plan. 

Gwen was moping around at S.H.I.E.L.D. when someone knocked on the door to her room. When she opened it, it was Tony. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, inviting him in.

“I was bored.” 

“You? Bored? Don’t you have a whole tower full of toys to play with?” 

“Yes, but it’s a bit empty right now over there.” 

“Where’s Pepper?” 

“She told me we need a break. She said I’m irresponsible. She’s staying with a friend for a couple of weeks.” 

“I know how you feel. Phil and I broke up too. He doesn’t trust me, and that hurts, you know?” 

“Want to come to the tower and get drunk?” 

“Sure,” she said. She was tired of being sad, she wanted to drink until she couldn’t feel feelings. 

They flew to Stark Tower and he poured them each a glass of whiskey on the rocks and they sat down and sipped it while complaining about Coulson and Pepper. Sure, they both loved the two of them, but they couldn’t think about that at the moment, it was too painful for both of them. When they were finished, Tony poured them both more whiskey and somehow they ended up cuddling on the couch while they drank it. Gwen had her back against his chest and could feel the hardness of the arc reactor through his shirt. It contrasted with the warmth of the rest of his chest. When they finished those, he poured them each a third glass and sat back down for more cuddling. They were both lonely and it was nice to feel a physical connection to someone. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Tony asked, 

“Do you want to see my cars?” 

“Yes!” Gwen said, a bit of a car enthusiast. They went down to the garage and looked at all of his shiny automobiles while they sipped their whiskey. The alcohol was starting to sink into both of them and they were rather tipsy. Gwen’s eyes lit up while she looked at all of them, running her hands over the shiny paint jobs. Shooting back the last bit of her whiskey, she suddenly saw one in particular that was shiny and red and especially arousing for her. She set her empty glass down on the floor and walked closer to it reverently. 

“Is that an Audi R8 Spyder?” she asked breathily. He set his empty glass down on the floor next to hers and stood next to her. He looked impressed. “With a V10 engine?” Tony responded by grabbing her face and kissing her. She kissed him back, her hands running over the arc reactor through his t-shirt. After a few moments, she pushed him away slightly. “Should we do this? Aren’t you and Pepper on a break? As in…getting back together in a couple weeks?” 

“We made an agreement that we don’t talk about what happens during the break.” 

“Oh. Well alright then,” Gwen replied before pulling his head back down to hers. Tony backed her against the driver’s door of the Spyder and started kissing his way up her neck from the top of her t-shirt. When he got to her ear, he sucked her earlobe into his mouth and she gasped and pulled his t-shirt over his head. She began kissing a line down his neck, then ran her tongue along his collarbone, making him breathe heavily. She kissed her way down his chest until she reached the arc reactor, feeling the cold metal before running her hands along the warm skin around it. She circled the arc reactor with her tongue, making him moan and pull her shirt off. Their mouths returned to each other, tongues tangling together as he walked her to the front of the car and lifted her up onto the hood. He crawled up too and laid them both down, him on top of her. She could feel the metal against the skin of her back and the arc reactor against her chest as Tony’s tongue explored her mouth. 

He lowered his head to kiss down her sternum and across her cleavage while she undid his jeans and started sliding them off of him. He kicked them away and unclasped her bra, tossing it aside and then working on her jeans while he kissed her neck. Before long, they had shed their undergarments and christened the hood of the Audi R8 Spyder.


	13. Pain

For the next week Lacey took more lessons from Natasha. She was a quick learner and improved rapidly, and soon Natasha decided to fight her so that she could practice. Obviously Natasha went very easy on her to accommodate for her beginner level, but she figured it was better to practice on a real person than on a punching bag. 

They were trading kicks when Lacey suddenly fell down and held her left knee in her hands while lying on her back. 

“What happened? Are you okay?” Natasha asked, running over, a worried look on her face.

“My knee hurts. Really badly,” Lacey grimaced. 

“Can you stand on it?” Natasha offered a hand to help her up. Lacey stood and applied some pressure to her left foot, hissing from the pain. 

“Yeah, I can stand on it, but it hurts really badly.” 

“Come on, I’ll help you,” Natasha said, helping Lacey lean on her and walking her to the door. “We need to go see Bruce.” 

“No! No, we can’t see Bruce. I’ll be fine, I’ll just sit down for a minute, I’m sure it’s okay.” 

“I know you don’t want to see him, but you’re hurt and he’s medically trained.” Natasha kept walking and so Lacey had no choice but to accompany her to the lab where they found Bruce working. 

“Lacey? What’s wrong?” he asked, looking concerned and rushing over to help Natasha with her. They got her lifted onto the counter. 

“I’ll leave you alone to check her out, doc,” she said. “I’ll go get some ice. I’m really sorry, Lacey.” 

“It’s fine,” Lacey promised, begging Natasha not to leave with her eyes, but the redheaded assassin left the room anyway, leaving Lacey alone with Bruce. 

He gave her an awkward half-smile and began to gently bend her knee back and forth while she hissed in pain. 

“What happened?” he asked. Lacey sighed and looked down at her hands, fiddling with the hem of her shorts while she answered. 

“Natasha and I were practicing some fighting techniques,” she mumbled. 

“What were you thinking? That’s dangerous,” Bruce said, looking at her with his jaw clenched. 

“I was thinking…” Lacey didn’t finish. Tears were threatening to come out, and she didn’t want him to see them. “Oh, like you care,” she went with instead.

“How could you think that I don’t care?” Bruce asked, looking at her with hurt in his eyes. At this point, Natasha came back with the ice and Lacey put it on her knee. Natasha left again and Bruce looked at Lacey again. He tried to brush a piece of hair out of her face, but she turned her head away. 

“All done?” she asked, gesturing to her knee with her head. 

“Yeah, I’m done,” he said sadly. “It’s just a sprain. Take it easy. No more fighting with Natasha. Just rest it off for a couple days.” 

“Okay,” Lacey said, grabbing the bag of ice and sliding off of the counter. She began hobbling to the door of the lab. 

“Do you need any help?” Bruce asked softly. 

“I’m fine,” she said, leaving the room.


	14. An Apology

About a week after the drunk night with Tony, Gwen was in the city, waiting. About ten days ago, Coulson had shown the guys from the lab the video of Gwen and now she was just waiting for them to come get her. Coulson was in a car, watching from a safe distance. Gwen had a tiny microphone camera on her top and an earpiece so that she and Coulson could communicate if necessary.

“See anything yet?” Coulson asked her. 

“Nothing,” she said into her microphone. There was silence for a few more moments when Coulson spoke again. 

“Gwen…” she didn’t say anything, so he continued. “What you’re about to do is dangerous, and anything could happen to you.” He paused, and she was still silent, so he just kept talking. “I trust you completely to take care of yourself once you get inside the lab, and I’ll be following behind in case you need me…but just in case anything should happen, I want you to know that I was stupid…and that I know you can handle yourself with these guys…and that…no matter what happens, I love you.” She was silent for a few more moments, some of the longest moments of Coulson’s life. 

“Phil, I love you too,” she finally said. He had a huge smile on his face. “I miss you and I don’t want us to be like this anymore. Thank you for believing in me. Oh, I see a van,” Gwen said. The white unmarked van pulled up and pulled Gwen inside, and Coulson immediately turned on his engine to follow it. He was happy to have made up with Gwen, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her now, even though he knew was more than capable of taking care of herself.


	15. Punching Bag

Bruce stormed into the room where Natasha was, slamming his hands down on a table. 

“What did you do to her?” he demanded. “You want someone to train with? Pick someone else. She’s not a fighter.” Natasha looked rather frightened for a moment, but when it was clear that Bruce wasn’t going to change, she relaxed a bit and crossed her arms over her ample chest. 

“She came to me. She asked me to teach her how to fight. She said she wanted to learn how to defend herself.” Bruce looked confused. “She thought that if she could protect herself, you wouldn’t worry about her so much.” 

“She asked you to teach her self-defense so that I wouldn’t worry?” Bruce still didn’t seem to understand.

“She thought maybe if you weren’t as worried about her getting hurt, she might be able to get you back.” 

Bruce thought about this for a moment, and realized that once again, Lacey had gotten hurt and that it was his fault. Indirectly, sure, but she had sprained a knee because of him. No matter what he did, she was still suffering pain because he was near her. 

“Do you know where she is?” he asked Natasha. 

“I think she’s in the training room.” 

“Thanks.” Bruce left and went immediately to the training room. He saw Lacey in a sports bra tank top and athletic shorts. Her knee was still wrapped up and she had her feet firmly planted shoulder-width apart. Her hands were wrapped and she was punching furiously at a punching bag. He went farther into the room and stood a few feet away from her, watching as she beat the crap out of the bag angrily. Knowing that he was in the room with her, she began punching even harder and faster, then suddenly cringed and shook her hand. She had punched too hard and her wrist hurt a little. However, she just shook it off and went right back to punching. At this point, Bruce felt it necessary to step in. 

“Lacey. Lacey, stop, you’re hurting yourself.” 

“I’m fine,” she said, punching harder. She was starting to turn red. He grabbed her by the shoulders from behind and pulled her away from the punching bag. She sighed and collapsed onto the bench against the wall, rolling her hand around to stretch out her wrist. Bruce sat down next to her and handed her the water bottle that was sitting on the floor and she took a large gulp. 

“I know you’re angry at me,” he started. “But I’m the reason you keep getting hurt. That’s why I can’t be with you. You think it’s easy for me?” She didn’t answer. “I know you don’t want me to worry about you, but learning how to fight won’t protect you from me…from the Other Guy.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter, since neither of you will come near me anyway,” she said coldly. 

“Lacey, the Other Guy knocked you unconscious.” 

“He saved my life!” she shouted. “And you seem to forget that I’m the only person besides you that can control him in any way.” 

“It’s not just him. You have a sprained knee because of me.” 

“You’re not seriously blaming yourself for that, are you?” Lacey asked in disbelief. 

“Of course I am. Ever since you met me, you just keep getting hurt. I hate seeing that.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “I think you should leave S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

“What?” 

“It would just be safer for you if you stayed away from me and never saw me again.” Lacey couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was bad enough that he broke up with her, but now he wanted her out of his life completely? Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked at him angrily. 

“Maybe you don’t need me, but The Hulk does,” she said through her teeth. He didn’t say anything, didn’t change his mind. “You know what? You want me to leave? Fine.” Tears were pouring down her face and a few were escaping from his eyes as well. “You can try to keep me safe by pushing me away, but I have news for you. When I leave, I still won’t be safe. I could walk outside and get hit by a car, or get shot, or get hit in the head by a flower pot that fell off a balcony…but apparently as long as your conscience is clear, you don’t care what happens to me at all.” With that, she stormed out of the room to go pack up her stuff.


	16. Gwen Undercover

Gwen was in a van, on her way to the secret location of the laboratory where these guys were supposedly trying to genetically grow women to clients’ specifications. 

“Who are you? What are you going to do to me?” she asked in a frightened voice, pretending to be terrified. Tears were running down her face. 

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We just need a little of your DNA.” 

“Then why don’t you just give me a haircut and let me go?” 

“That’s no fun, baby. We need to see what all you can do first.” 

“Where are you taking me?” 

“You don’t need to know that.” They were driving along when the driver spoke. 

“Can’t we gag this bitch?”

“Just let her talk, it’s not that much farther,” Mike replied. They drove for a couple more minutes and then suddenly stopped. Gwen was taken out of the van and found herself in a dark garage, and was led through a door where they entered a lab. She was taken down a hall and then put into a room that pretty much only had a bed in it. As soon as the door was closed and locked, Gwen wasted no time in speaking into her microphone. 

“Phil? Did you follow the van okay? Did you find the building?” 

“Yes, I’m sitting outside. Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine. Can you hear everything okay?” 

“Yeah, I heard everything that happened on the drive over. Gwen, be careful.”

“I promise,” she said. Looking around Gwen did not see anything that looked like it could be a camera. She was being imprisoned, but not watched.

Gwen reached into her bra, where she had stored a few tiny microphones and cameras. She placed them around the room, knowing that Coulson could access them and see what was going on in the lab. Gwen knew she might have to endure some ugly things while she was undercover there, but at least they’d know what they were dealing with and could take this creepy lab down.


	17. Packing

Lacey started packing up her stuff, throwing all of her clothes into a suitcase angrily. She was so upset…angry at Bruce, angry at herself. She should never have agreed to be at S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place, that way she would have never fallen in love with him and it wouldn’t hurt this much. Getting most of her stuff stored away, she sat down at her laptop and began searching for apartments. She had gotten rid of her old place when she started at S.H.I.E.L.D. and now needed to find one she could afford. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been providing everything for her and had paid her for being involved in experiments with The Hulk, but now she would have to get another job and a new place. 

She called a couple of places and set up times to look at a couple of apartments, then called Tony, who told her she could stay at Stark Tower for as long as she needed while she looked for a place. If Bruce wanted her gone, she didn’t want to stick around any longer – clearly seeing her was unpleasant for him, and frankly, she didn’t want to look at him either. When she had gotten all her stuff together and cleaned up the room a little, she thanked Nick Fury, Natasha, and Clint and said goodbye to them. They promised to keep in touch; they really liked Lacey. She wanted to thank Agent Coulson too, but he was out on a mission with Gwen. 

Lacey teared up while she was getting on the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane. She would miss everyone there, and she was glad some of them were going to still hang out with her when they could. She had made quite a few friends there. She was glad she’d be staying with Tony instead of having to pay for a hotel and be lonely. The plane landed on Stark Tower and Tony showed her to a magnificently enormous and beautiful room where she could stay. Exhausted from crying, beating up the punching bag, and arguing with Bruce, she decided to just take a shower and curl up in the huge, cushy bed, and slept until morning.


	18. What's in the Lab

Gwen woke up after spending her first night in the lab. She had communicated with Coulson a bit, but nothing so far had happened. She heard the door unlock and a man brought in a plate of toast and scrambled eggs as well as a glass of water. He gave it to her and left, and she ate it, hoping it wasn’t drugged or anything, but not knowing how often they were planning on feeding her. 

When she had finished eating, she waited for a bit and about an hour later, Mike came in and looked her over. 

“What are you going to do to me now?” Gwen asked, pretending to be scared. 

“Just test exactly how flexible you are. You used to be a gymnast, right?”

“How do you know all this stuff about me?” she demanded.

“That’s my business. Now, come on. We’re going to test you out,” he said, grabbing her and dragging her down the hall. She struggled, but he managed to contain her. Fortunately for him, she was going easy on him. They walked down a hall full of rooms with big windows in them. Through them she could see women being tested for various things – one girl was being forced to cook, one was tied up topless and was having her ample chest measured, one was having pictures of her face taken from all angles. These women had clearly been kidnapped because some creepy perverts out there liked what they had and wanted it for themselves. All of the women looked like they were there against their will.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Gwen said. 

“Fine, it’s right here. There’s no way to escape in there, so don’t even bother trying.” 

Gwen entered the bathroom and covered her microphone and camera…there were things Coulson didn’t need to see and hear. After she flushed and washed her hands, she spoke into the microphone. 

“Phil? Did you hear that?” 

“Yeah, they said they’re taking you to test your flexibility. What are they going to do?”

“I don’t know. Probably stretch me every which way.” 

“I don’t like the sound of that.” 

“Phil, they have a bunch of women here. They’re doing all kinds of things to them, and none of them look very happy to be here. I have no idea how they find these women, but I’m definitely not the only one they’ve got in here.” 

“I’ll look at the missing person reports and maybe we can see if any of them match up.” 

“Thanks. I’d better get back out there and see what they’re planning on doing to me.” 

“Be careful. I love you.” 

“Love you too.” 

Gwen left the bathroom and was taken to a room with some medical equipment. She was put into a chair and her arm was strapped down. A guy took a sample of her blood and wrapped up her arm, then she was taken to another room. 

She was given some stretchy clothes to change into, since she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. When they left her alone to change, she put a couple of cameras in the room and changed, then the guys came back in and told her to stretch. When she had stretched out her muscles, she was told to get into a number of positions that would demonstrate her flexibility. Sometimes one of the guys would come and physically try to push her harder, which hurt. She was worried they were going to injure her. 

Finally, they decided she’d had enough for one day and brought her back to her room. It was not going to be a fun time there; that was for sure.


	19. Pac-Man and Gin

Lacey was playing Pac-Man with Tony while they ate potato chips and drank gin. After the game really got going, Lacey was the one to start the bro talk. 

“So. What happened with Pepper?”

“She got this ridiculous idea that I’m irresponsible.” 

“The man playing video games and eating chips in his huge house? Never!” Lacey glanced at Tony and saw a look cross his face. “Oh god, who did you sleep with?”

“Gwen.” 

“Man, it seems like everyone’s split up…me and Bruce, you and Pepper, Gwen and Phil…everybody’s breaking up and no one’s getting together.” 

“I kind of suspect Clint might be getting some.” 

“No way! Who?” Tony just gave her a look. “Natasha! I knew it…hey, don’t change the subject.” Lacey took a sip of her gin and returned to the subject. “You miss her.” 

“Maybe a little.” 

“Tony...” 

“And by a little I mean that sometimes I feel like the world is crashing down around me and I wonder if anything will ever be okay again.” Lacey paused the game to give him a hug. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his arc reactor and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. They just sat like this for a few minutes. “Pepper deserves better.” 

“Tony, Pepper deserves what she wants. And what she wants is you. She misses you too, you know. Besides, you and I both know that Pepper wouldn’t stand for less than the best. You are the best. She just wants you to remember to appreciate her, that’s all. I promise, everything will be right again soon.” 

“You may be right. Who could resist this? Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and have you seen me? I’m waiting for them to put my face on a dollar bill so that I can buy pretty things for myself with myself.” 

“I’m kind of seeing the irresponsible thing just a little bit,” Lacey joked. They returned to the game and played for a few more minutes before Tony broke the silence again. 

“Bruce texted me roughly every six and a half minutes today asking if you’re okay.” 

“I don’t know what he could be worried about. He’s not around to hurt me himself, so it’s not like he cares.”

“Believe me when I say, he cares,” Tony answered. He paused the game and pulled out his phone for reference. “At 8:47 this morning – he woke me up, by the way - ‘how’s Lacey?’…at 9:23, ‘did she eat breakfast?’…at 11:58, ‘I hope she’s getting enough water’…1:36, ‘does she need anything?’…I think you get the picture.” Lacey thought about this for a minute, then started tearing up. Tony put an arm around her and let her cry on his shoulder. 

“I love him so much…I try to pretend I’m all strong and don’t need him and can take care of myself…it’s easier to be mad at him, so I was…but I just want him back. Why can’t he understand that he’s hurting me so much more by not being with me than he ever has when we were together?” 

“See, the thing you need to understand about genius scientists is that they don’t like to admit when they’re wrong. I mean, so I hear. I wouldn’t know; I’m never wrong. Ever.”   
Not much more was said as they returned to their game, playing until Lacey got tired and went to sleep.


	20. Lacey Kidnapped

For the next few days, Gwen was put through some flexibility tests while the guys did some bloodwork. The tests were painful and frankly made her very uncomfortable, and during times she was alone, she heard Coulson telling her how unhappy he was about it. However, Gwen knew she needed to figure out what was really going on in that lab, and knew she could handle what was being done to her. 

Lacey, meanwhile, looked at a few apartments, but didn’t find one that would work for her. She also spent the next few days applying for jobs. One day, Tony approached her and gave her a slightly apologetic look, or as close to apologetic as Tony ever got. 

“What do you want from me?” Lacey asked suspiciously. 

“Bruce is coming over…” Tony answered. “You don’t have to go anywhere.” 

“I’ll go for a walk,” Lacey informed him. She didn’t really need to see Bruce. She went and changed into a sundress and grabbed her purse, figuring she could go shopping or something. When she came out of her room, Bruce was already there. 

“Hi,” he said. Tony stared between the two awkwardly. 

“Hi,” she answered shyly. Suddenly she felt timid. 

“How have you been?” 

“Fine.” 

“You look good.” 

“Thanks.” They stood awkwardly for a moment, and Lacey could barely stand it. “I was just going out.” 

“You don’t have to leave.” 

“I know.” More silence. “Well, I’m going for a walk.” With that, Lacey left. 

She walked around the city for about twenty minutes, when quite suddenly, a van screeched up and pulled her in. 

“Gag this one, I’m tired of hearing their whining,” the driver said. While Lacey struggled, she was held down by a few guys and her wrists were tied behind her back and a strip of duct tape was put over her mouth. She had no way to escape, she didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t know how long it would be before Tony worried about her. She was terrified.


	21. Friends Reunited

Lacey was brought into a building and down a couple hallways. She was untied and the tape on her mouth was removed, and she was tossed into a room. While they were closing the door, she shouted, 

“Who are you people? Where am I?” There was no answer. A moment later, a voice came into her room, and she realized that someone was speaking through the air vent in the wall. 

“Lacey?” the voice asked. Lacey went over to the vent and spoke through it into the next room.

“Gwen? They got you too?” 

“I made them kidnap me, I’m undercover. I’m trying to uncover this whole operation. Phil knows where we are, I’ve bugged this room and others and he’s watching everything on cameras.” 

“What is this operation, exactly?” 

“It’s super creepy. They take women with desirable qualities and use their DNA to make women to guys’ specifications.”

“You weren’t kidding about the creepy. Wait, what do they want with me?” 

“I don’t know. It could be anything. They’ll take a blood sample and then try to run all these tests on you.” 

“What kind of tests?” 

“I don’t know, it depends on what they want you for. Lacey, don’t worry. I’m going to get Phil to call Fury, he’ll send someone to rescue you.” 

“Thanks.” 

Gwen told Phil about Lacey being there and asked him to call Fury. These guys needed to be brought down.


	22. Taking Down the Lab

Bruce returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. Lacey still hadn’t returned to Stark Tower when he’d left, and he thought she was taking a pretty long walk, but he figured she probably just didn’t want to see him. When he got back to the helicarrier, Fury seemed a bit edgy, and he was talking to Clint. Bruce had come to the bridge to see what the hullabaloo was about. It seemed like a few people were panicking. 

“What’s going on?” Bruce asked, walking up to Fury and Clint. They exchanged a look that said, ‘should we tell him?’ Clint decided that it would probably be a good idea to let him know that the woman he loved was in danger. 

“Lacey’s been captured. There’s an underground lab that kidnaps women to steal their DNA so that they can combine certain traits to create new and improved women at clients’ requests. They’ve got her. She should be with Agent Morehouse, she went undercover,” Clint explained. 

“I’m sending Agent Barton to rescue her,” Fury added. 

“I want to come with you,” Bruce said. 

“Doctor Banner, do you think that’s a good idea?” Fury asked. 

“If the Other Guy gets out of hand, you can shoot me with a tranquilizer arrow,” he said to Clint. That had been proven to work in the past when The Hulk had gotten too dangerous. Clint looked to Fury for approval, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. leader nodded his assent. The two men went off to prepare for the rescue. Fury gave them the directions Coulson had provided and they went to go save Lacey.

*****

Clint and Bruce found Coulson’s car and he got out, all three preparing to go in. Obviously none of them had ID cards to get them in, so they just pounded on the metal door. When someone came to open it, Coulson hit him over the head with his gun. The guy fell to the floor and he stole his ID card, and the four men went inside. 

They turned around a corner and found a guy holding Lacey’s arms from behind while she struggled and tried to get out of his grasp. Another guy was trying to grab her legs, but she was kicking them violently and he couldn’t get a firm grip. A third guy was trying to stick a needle in her arm, but she was wiggling too much. Coulson pulled his gun and Clint grabbed an arrow and nocked it, pointing it in the general direction of the group. Bruce just watched in horror. 

“Release her now,” Coulson said calmly. 

“Hurry up, Jake,” the guy holding Lacey’s arms said to the guy with the needle. “This bitch is starting to be more trouble than she’s worth.” 

“Let go of her now or we shoot,” Clint said. Jake finally managed to get the needle in Lacey’s arm and after a second she collapsed into a floppy mess of dead weight. The guys dropped Lacey and she fell on her head hard on the linoleum floor. Clint shot an arrow into a guy’s shoulder. Jake spoke into a walkie talkie for backup. 

Bruce started to get stressed out and stumbled for a moment, trying to contain his anger. Watching them handle Lacey so carelessly made him so upset. He knew that this danger she was in really didn’t have to do with him, and he was angry that anyone would purposefully hurt her. He took a few deep breaths, trying not to change, but he could already feel it coming. 

“Bruce, calm down,” Clint said. 

“I can’t,” he said, his voice already lowering into a deep growl. A moment later, the Hulk was standing in the hall. He ran past the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Clint nocked an arrow, poising it at The Hulk. 

“No, Clint, wait until he’s a threat. Right now he’s helping us,” Phil said. Indeed he was. The Hulk punched two guys that had come to back up Jake, and Jake had picked up Lacey again and was running with her while she flopped around on his shoulder. Jake ran into a room and looked at the guy inside. 

“We need to wake her up,” he told the guy. 

“Why? Wasn’t she causing a lot of trouble?” 

“Yeah, but we have company.” They heard a large growl outside as The Hulk pounded on the door of the room. “Hurry up, I don’t know how long that door is going to hold up.”   
Outside, The Hulk was pounding on the door. The walls around the door started cracking while the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents managed to shoot or knock out the three more guys who had come running to help Jake. When they didn’t have anyone else to fight, they just watched The Hulk try to beat down the door. A moment later, Gwen came around the corner, having managed to escape from her room. Coulson looked over and pulled Gwen to him. 

“I missed you,” he said with a smile, then lowered his mouth to hers. She kissed him back passionately, her hands running into his hair as he wrapped his tightly around her waist.   
“Oh, come on guys, really?” Clint said in disbelief. In the room, the guy filled up a syringe and attached a needle, then stuck it in Lacey’s arm and she opened her eyes. The door gave way, creating a huge hole in the wall, and Lacey ran for the hole. The Hulk took a swing at her, not seeing who she was, but she dodged it. 

“It’s me,” she said. The Hulk looked at her and lowered his fists. Then he looked behind her and growled. She jabbed her elbow hard backwards and heard the groan of pain as she hit Jake in the gut. The other guy looked at her and backed away slowly, his hands up in surrender. Lacey left the room and wrapped her arms around The Hulk’s torso, or as far as she could get them around the huge creature. “You do care,” she whispered. He shrank back down into Bruce Banner, the shredded pants that had gotten stretched out falling to the floor, leaving him naked as he realized Lacey was hugging him. 

“Uh…hey,” he said, putting a hand on her back. She lifted her head to look at him and smiled, then the smile fell and she pushed him away. 

“I’m still mad at you,” she said crisply. Then she saw Gwen and Coulson making out. “Uh, guys? Do you think you could do this another time? And in another place? Where there aren’t other people?” Clint nodded in agreement. Bruce looked back into the room at the guy that was standing there terrified. 

“Hey…could I have your lab coat?” The guy pulled it off and tossed it to him, and Bruce put it on so that he would be at least partially covered. Gwen and Coulson pulled guns on Jake and the other guy. 

“You’re under arrest for kidnapping and running an illegal operation,” Gwen said. 

They managed to round up all the guys involved in this lab – ten in total – and get them to prison. They were all flown back to the helicarrier in silence. Gwen and Coulson were pretty much making out the entire ride back. Lacey refused to speak to Bruce, and Clint just sat there trying to ignore the kissing Gwen and Coulson.


	23. Together Again

Bruce was trying to focus on one of the screens in the lab, but he just kept thinking about Lacey. He removed his glasses to rub his eyes, then put them back on and looked at the screen again. A moment later, as if summoned by his thoughts, she entered the lab, holding an ice pack to the back of her head where she had fallen when Jake dropped her. She pushed herself up to sit on a desk in the lab and looked at Bruce. He went over and sat next to her. 

“Hey,” he started. 

“Hey? That’s what you’re going with?” she asked, although not harshly. 

“It was either that or me bursting into tears on your shoulder,” he said carefully. The corner of her mouth twitched up and she looked into her lap for a moment before looking back up at him, her eyes just slightly wet. 

“What are we going to do?” He sighed and took her hand, playing with her fingers.

“I love you so much. I know you may not believe that, but it’s true. When I’m with you, and something happens to you because of The Hulk…the Other Guy…I’m in pain. Then when I’m not with you, I’m in pain too. It hurts either way.” Lacey nodded…she thought she knew what he meant. He’d rather not see her hurt and be hurting himself, because no matter what, he was suffering. Lacey sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, putting her ice pack on the desk next to her. 

“Bruce, these last few weeks, when we haven’t been together…those have been painful for me. When The Hulk knocked me unconscious…I was bruised and beat up…but when I woke up, and I saw you lying next to me, I didn’t feel any pain at all. I was just happy to see you.” 

“Lacey, you said in the training room that I don’t need you, but that the Other Guy does. I’m not sure that’s true. I do need you. Both of us do. You keep us from hurting people and messing things up. You’re the only one who can. That’s something no one else at S.H.I.E.L.D. can offer.” She didn’t really say anything, just lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him. 

“When you said I don’t care what happens to you if I’m not the one hurting you…that’s not true either.” 

“I’m sorry I said those things. I was in pain, and I wanted you to be too.” 

“I always am…but it’s a lot less bad when I’m with you.” 

“Are you saying you want to be together again?” she asked. 

“More than anything.” She smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips, kissing him with all the love she had. He wrapped his arm around her waist, his other hand coming up to her face as her hands ran up his arms. When they broke the kiss, she rested her head on his shoulder again. 

“Do you really think I have a place at S.H.I.E.L.D.?” she asked. 

“Of course. You’re still the only one who has this power over me.” 

“Maybe you’re right,” she smiled. “I may not be a superhero…but I seem to make a pretty good sidekick.” She pressed a kiss to the side of his neck and sighed contentedly when he responded by lowering his lips to hers and kissing her languidly until they were both breathless.


	24. Lola

Coulson and Gwen had made it back to his room and collapsed onto the bed, kissing passionately. He started kissing a line down her neck and reaching a hand up her shirt but she stopped him. 

“Phil. Phil, wait a minute, I have to tell you something.” He stopped kissing her and lifted his head to look at her. 

“What is it?” 

“I…I know trust has been a thing between us, and I want to always be honest with you because I love you. You see…” she started nervously, “while we were broken up, I was hurt and lonely, and…I might have…gotten drunk and slept with Tony,” she blurted out, hoping he wouldn’t break up with her. He raised his eyebrows a bit in surprise, and was silent for a moment. Then, he finally gave her a vaguely guilty smile and made a confession of his own. 

“I may have had a few drinks and done the same thing with Pepper,” he admitted. 

“Really?” she said with raised eyebrows. They both looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, then laughed. 

“Let’s forget about it,” he said, returning his mouth to her neck and speaking against it. “I love you,” he said, taking her earlobe into his mouth and biting it. She gasped and pulled his mouth to hers, kissing him passionately while tongues explored. A moment later, he broke the kiss and looked at her hesitantly. 

“What is it?” 

“Was he…was Tony better than me?” 

“What? No, of course not,” she assured him, and he smiled and lowered his mouth to hers again. He started kissing down her neck again and she sighed. “Well…I mean…there was this one thing…” He lifted his head again and looked at her curiously. He seemed a bit insecure. 

“What thing?” 

“I mean…it’s not really a huge deal…just…we did it on the hood of a car…” 

“A car? Really? And you liked that?” he asked mischievously. She bit her lip and nodded. He stood up and grabbed her hands to pull her up, then threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of the room. 

“Where are we going?” 

“We’re going to have a ménage a trois with Lola,” he informed her, referring to his shiny red vintage Corvette. 

“Oh?” she said in a squeaky voice, getting excited. They made it to a garage where Lola was parked, and Coulson very gently lowered Gwen onto the hood so that he wouldn’t damage the car. She grabbed him by the tie and pulled him down on top of her, kissing him with a perfect mix of love and lust, sliding his suit jacket off over his shoulders while his tongue explored her mouth. He quickly pulled her shirt off over her head and then started kissing down her sternum. When he was kissing across her cleavage, he unclasped her bra and tossed it away. He returned his lips to hers, kissing her seductively while he undid his tie. When he had gotten it off, he stood up and grabbed one of her wrists. He tied one end of the tie around her wrist and tied the other end to one of Lola’s side mirrors. He circled around to the other side of the car and undid his belt, pulling it off. He hooked it around her other wrist and tied the leather to the other side mirror. He then stood in front of her, undoing the buttons on his shirt one-by-one. 

“Phil?” 

“Yes?” 

“What about Pepper? Was she better than me?” He looked at her mischievously for a moment, slid his shirt off his shoulders, and climbed back on top of her, his hands stroking her chest while he sucked her earlobe into his mouth. Then he grabbed a handful of her hair, tugging on the strands roughly while whispered into her ear,

“It’s hard to say…I haven’t gotten to explore how flexible you are yet.” He raised his head to find her looking at him with a wicked smile, and he sucked a dark mark onto her neck while he worked on undoing her jeans. He quickly ended up removing his own pants, and then the rest of their undergarments, before exploring how flexible she was, even while tied up.


	25. Show, Not Tell

Lacey was staying at S.H.I.E.L.D. She was going to continue training with Natasha and hopefully eventually work for the organization. Meanwhile, Bruce continued doing science in the S.H.I.E.L.D. lab and gotten back together with Lacey. Everyone was relieved – they obviously loved each other so much and belonged together. 

One night, Bruce knocked on the door to her room and she let him in. As soon as the door was closed, he pulled her to him and started kissing her languidly. She slid her hands up his arms and into his curls, lifting one hand to pull of his glasses that he still had on and set them on the bedside table. He stroked the sensitive spot on her lower spine, his tongue dipping into her mouth. She sighed into his mouth and walked him over to the bed, taking him with her as she collapsed onto it, him on top of her. He released her lips and lifted his head to look at her lovingly, stroking her hair. 

“I love you so much,” he told her. “Have I told you that yet?” 

“Many times,” she smiled. “But you haven’t showed me in a while,” she said, her eyes sparkling devilishly. 

He didn’t respond in words, just followed her request. He kissed her lips gently for a moment, brushing his over them, then moved down to her neck, kissing his way down it softly, slowly. A hand reached under her to tease the spot on her spine as he continued kissing lower, sliding his tongue along her collarbone and then brushing his lips over her sternum. She moaned and he slid the zipper down the back of her dress, pulling it off her shoulders and gently kissing her cleavage. He got the dress off and threw it over his shoulder. She grabbed the lapels of his purple button-up shirt and pulled his head back up to hers, allowing their tongues to tangle while she worked on his buttons and slid his shirt off. She lifted her head to kiss and suck on his neck, her fingers threading in his hair and playing with it. 

“Bruce,” she murmured into the soft skin behind his ear, “you’re not feeling stressed at all, are you?” 

“No,” he sighed. 

“Good,” she said, and started undoing his pants. He unhooked her bra and removed it, his fingers exploring as much of her skin as they could, and soon their undergarments were also discarded, and he kept his promise of showing her his love.


	26. Pepperony

Pepper was back at Stark Tower – she and Tony had made up. They loved each other too much to stay apart for long. Tony made them each a drink, they lit a fire, and cuddled on the couch drinking them. 

“So. Whatever happened while we were on our break stays there. It never needs to be spoken of,” Pepper reminded him. Tony placed a kiss into her hair, took a sip of his drink, and then blurted out,

“I had sex with Gwen. On the Spyder. I got it washed, I promise.” Pepper just stared at him for a moment.

“What part of ‘what happens in the break stays in the break’ was unclear to you?” 

“I don’t know. It just came out.” She rolled her eyes at him and rested her hand on his knee. He was always Tony, but he was her Tony. Taking a sip of her drink, she decided that if they were going to break the non-disclosure rule, she might as well get in on it too. 

“Well, if we’re being honest, I slept with Phil.” 

“Phil?” He looked confused, then realized who she was talking about. “Coulson? You had sex with Coulson? Ew! Was he better than me? What am I talking about, no one’s better than me.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Pepper shook her head and kissed her boyfriend. It was so cute how he couldn’t live without her.


End file.
